Would you report this to the police?

[RockOrAHardplace]

I am Executor of a Will for elderly person who recently died. Unknown to me, there had been an LPA in place for finances as elderly person was in a dementia care home. Once the elderly person passed the LPA was no longer valid and it all fell to me as executor.

Transpires the person entrusted with the LPA robbed her blind and didn't pay any of her bills despite taking the money from the account. Nor did they register the LPA with the elderly persons bank. LPA was also taken out 2 years after elderly person had lost her mental capacity and was in a dementia care home. According to bank statements, whilst in dementia care home, which she never left, said elderly woman was buying designer clothes at Urban Outfitters, eating meals at nice restaurants, attending concerts and buying petrol for her car (elderly person never drove) and was having supermarket food deliveries delivered to a house 60 miles away where the holder of the LPA lived in a fully catered secure dementia care home..

Tried reporting to the Office of Public Guardian as the LPA should never have been allowed but as the elderly person is dead, their powers have lapsed.

Person who had the LPA entrusted cannot account for the whereabouts of the money, we are talking enough to buy a small house. There wasn't even any money to bury the person person in the estate (but before you ask the money came from elsewhere and she had a lovely funeral).

Would it be reasonable to report it to the Police or unreasonable to do so?

Absolutely report. It makes no difference whether it's a distant family member.

They acted immorally by taking advantage of a vulnerable, elderly woman and they acted illegally by committing fraud.

If their life is ruined, that's down to their actions, not to you reporting it.
If they have got away with it once, what's to stop them doing it again?

Yes I would report it.

Channel 4. I saw this too.

Please report it. I understand that it may not be easy to do, but please trust your gut on this.

We have a situation that's recently come to light on the death of the donor. The person with LPA was paying themselves several hundred pounds a week, and on the day of the death of the donor (their parent) transferred many thousands into their bank account. They are now the sole executor of the estate, but the beneficiaries (I am not one) have raised concerns with the solicitor dealing with the estate. Not sure yet where this is going to go.

Complain to the bank if they didn’t do the proper checks then they are massively at fault. Absolutely report this person to the police, this is straight theft.

Yes, i saw that. horrific for the poor chap.

Callous greed- @RockOrAHardplace REPORT.
This is surely a criminal offence.

Report it.

If people don't like it then they have a bad attitude to theft and are not nice.

As executor you have no choice here - this has to be reported to the police.

I think you can “sell” this decision on the basis to your family that you have a legal obligation to report this to the police as part of your duties as an executor.

I’d advise that you present the evidence to the police as well presented as you can. Make their job easy. Put together a time line, including the diagnosis and the thief being aware of it.

Have you contacted Age Uk for advice?

What you have written is both shocking and disgusting.
Whatever the outcome, that person is a thief and a criminal.
It should be reported.
Good luck.

Definitely report - this is so dishonest and disgusting it needs condemning.

are you not legally obliged to report as executor?

the only conceivable mitigation for me might be would the person who defrauded the estate been the one to receive any benefits from the estate?

Definitely report it. Something similar happened to a friend's father, and her sister was convicted of fraud.

Report it OP. You have no other choice.
Don't worry what the police will do, that's out of your hands.

Despicable story but I think more of this goes on than is discovered especially since making LPAs was opened up to the public and can be done online with no involvement needed from solicitors or doctors. Plus the removal of the duty to notify anyone the LPA is being made make it even easier feeds to defraud someone.

as executor you have the responsibility to report this to the police in case funds can be recovered for the estate. Hopefully the police will deal with it.

in my old job (solicitor) I had a similar case but, sad to say, the police were not interested. It was 20 years ago though, hopefully times have changed

I'm glad you have decided to report this fraud. I would report it too.

I have LPA for my mother. I am baffled that the person went to the bother of getting financial LPA and yet did not register it with the bank, instead they illegally used the elderly person's bank card to withdraw money for their own use. Why go to the trouble of getting LPA and not lodge it with the bank? Failing to pay care home fees is also unforgiveable. Good luck OP.

I agree.

Ooh this is one of my favourite programmes is there a new series on? Thanks for the tip

OP definitely report this I'm surprised you'd even question it!

Totally agree and that is why I have been waiting to get all my ducks in a row. Also I didn't want her to know what I was doing.

As executor it takes ages to get all the info as you have to provide the documentations to show you are the executor and then request the info. I am now at a stage whereby its pretty obvious (a) who the culprit is, (b) that they fully knew what they were doing by the way they have gone about it and (c) I have a pretty clear audit trail and (d) they clearly didn't think I would have the guts to take action against them.

So sorry, I am learning it is a lot more common that you would think and that the system is very flawed.

Well you would think so but apparently not according to the bank. This has really shocked me.

According to them, they were not aware of the LPA (which is fair comment as it wasn't registered with them). They did not know elderly person was in a dementia care home (tried to pass buck to me and said I should have told them). They say family member had card and pin number so must be with elderly persons permission (but a new card and number was issued to elderly persons home when she was in dementia care home - and guess who had the key). I also raised the exceptionally swift and hugely unusual change in spending habits and again they took no responsibility. Its going to the banking ombudsman.

A minor beneficiary, but why does that make any difference, its still stealing from the state if you can't pay the care home fees and they didn't even leave money for the funeral?

How would the bank even know who was taking the money if it was being withdrawn at an ATM or transferred online .

You can also escalate this as a formal complaint.
You only have to go on the ombudsman’s website to see decisions made whereby the bank has a duty of care to recognise and flag unusual spending. I would follow up on the police angle but also this too. The bank may have to reimburse the estate with some funds.

Because if they use the ATM card, you have to prove who used it, they can suggest someone else had access to it and once the bank is told about the dementia and has the LPA in place, there is no excused to keep withdrawing out all the cash to pay bills when you can pay by DD from the account etc.

The LPA was needed to sell the house for care fees, which wasn't enough because of other debts the family member was not aware of. Family members incompetence cost the estate thousands. I think family member came a cropper as they took the substantial cash in the bank, assuming the house sale would pay the bills and funeral expenses but without doing their research. They made assumptions rather than checking their facts and that is their undoing.

They also knew I was the Executor, that I was ill and they banked on me either not doing it properly as I was ill, or on me being too much of a wimp to follow through on what I found, Big mistake.